The father of missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann said he strongly believed his daughter was alive, rejecting reports she may have been murdered.
Police have refused to comment on the reports that the traces of blood were found on a wall in the holiday apartment in Praia de Luz where she went missing. The blood is said to have been found in the room where the child slept.
It was discovered early last week by British sniffer dogs trained to find remains of bodies, the Portuguese paper Jornal de Noticiasreported.
But Madeleine's father Gerry McCann said he strongly believed his daughter was alive.
"We are not naive but on numerous occasions Portuguese police have assured us they were looking for Madeleine alive," Gerry McCann said in a televised interview with Britain's Sky News.
"I don't know of any information that has changed that," he said, standing next to his wife Kate.
The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying: "Police have known for a month that Madeleine McCann was killed that night at the apartment in the Praia da Luz resort."
However, it was not clear whether the blood belonged to Madeleine as tests have not yet been completed and the newspaper did not say how police had come to the conclusion that the child was murdered.
A recent second search at the home of Robert Murat, the only formal suspect in the case, has turned up no new evidence.
It has also been reported that Portuguese police have been keeping a second suspect under surveillance for weeks. The unnamed man, who is in his 30s and a Portuguese speaker, is not believed to be Madeleine's kidnapper but may have been an accomplice, according to the Daily Mirror.
Elsewhere, Belgian police are carrying out DNA tests today on a drinks bottle used by a girl resembling Madeleine, as the 100-day marker of the youngster's disappearance approaches.
A possible sighting of the missing four-year-old in the Flemish town of Tongeren, near the Dutch border, is being investigated by the Belgian authorities. A customer at a restaurant told police she was "100 per cent sure" she had seen the youngster.
Detectives believe it is most likely Madeleine is dead, having been killed accidentally, Jornal de Noticiasclaimed.
Mr McCann had his wife Kate, who are still in Portugal, are planning a media event on Saturday to mark the 100-day anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.
PA